MirCorp Claims To More Soyuz Tourist Flights Disputed

SPACE TRAVEL

Although American businessman Dennis Tito has effectively opened a new adventure tourism route following his May flight to the space station, Rosaviakosmos has decided to slow down on pushing its tourism agenda until a formal protocol is worked out with NASA and the other station partners.

Moscow - May 22, 2001
After being clipped at the post by a rival space tourist agency for sending the first tourist into space, MirCorp has made several claims that it has secured seats on future Soyuz flights.

But the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) now says it does not have at the moment any scheduled flights for more space tourists on Russian Soyuz space vehicles, Sergei Gorbunov, director of Rosaviakosmos, told Interfax.

Gorbunov told Interfax that news reports last week that MirCorp and the Rocket Space Corporation (RSC) Energiya intend to sign an agreement for flights of new space tourists with Soyuz space vehicles within two weeks were not true.

According to Interfax, MirCorp was unable to confirm this, but did admit that there have been negotiations on such projects. "These negotiations are now at the stage of consultations," a MirCorp official was quoted as saying by Interfax.

"Any of our agreements with the RSC Energiya on commercial flights using Soyuz vehicles are to be approved by Rosaviakosmos. Therefore, at the moment it is too early and impossible to talk about specific dates on which any agreements in this sphere will be signed," the MirCorp official added in his comments to Interfax.

Although American businessman Dennis Tito has effectively opened a new adventure tourism route following his May flight to the space station, Rosaviakosmos has made quite clear that the resources of the Russian segment of the station belongs to the Russian government, and any use of those resources are controlled by government agencies.

Rosaviakosmos told Interfax that even without docking to the Station, Soyuz flights would need to be approved by the state.

The official did not rule rule out the possibility that foreign amateur astronauts could be included in future Russian space flights.

But following a heated standoff between Rosaviakosmos and NASA over space tourist flights to the Station, Russia has decided to slow down on pushing its tourism agenda until a formal protocol is worked out with NASA and the other station partners.

SPACE TRAVEL

Russia Says No More Space Tourists Without US Agreement

Moscow (AFP) May 11, 2001
Russia does not foresee blasting any more "space tourists" into orbit in Dennis Tito's wake until it reaches agreement with the United States about amateur astronauts, the head of the Russian space agency said Friday.

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